Jo Makes Her Mama Tear Up

The highlight of my day - of my week, even - was this afternoon when, upon handing her the totally cool bag I found at the Salvation Army Thrift (my Saturday guilty pleasure) - it's got a picture of a 40's -type woman with sparkly dogs, very retro - I heard her murmuring something.

"Day doo, dank doo," she said, in her robot-guttural voice (she's got several voices, one is the daddy-imitation sound, one's the singing noise, one's the screech)...

"What? What are you saying?"

"Day doo, dank doo," she repeated.

Oh. It dawned on me. My daughter is saying, "Thank you."

I don't know why it made me tear up, but it did. She knows and regularly uses "please" ("peas!" in her pretty voice with head cocked to the side) but I haven't tried to teach her "thank you" because it seemed too complicated and hard to say. To think that she's a) heard me/us say it enough that she's picked it up is amazing enough, but also, b) to think that I've done something for my girl that makes her say thank you... well, it just moved me.

Mind you, I hadn't had a truly decent cup of coffee at that point.

This picture was taken last night at Fridays After Five (weekly free music concert downtown, lots of kids, tons of people). I tried but couldn't get a picture with both her and the thing she was taken with - a guy doing a juggling act with three sticks. She stared in the above posture for quite a while, with her usual observant intensity. Then she just plopped herself down to watch (mind you, this is in the middle of a wide-open area where people are romping).

Yucky highlight from the week: the tick that showed up on her head. ACK. I am not a fan of ticks. I gave her to Sean. Am I terrible? I didn't know what to do. He did something with nail polish. The tick went splat. I since soaked her in bug repellant. The nail polish got left on the floor and the next day I found Josie sampling some, painting her tongue. ACK!

Another highlight of the week: Josie and I got to watch the cat across the street suckling her four itsy bitsy kittens. And they named one after Josie!

Both Sean and Josie are currently asleep. It's HOT. I mowed the lawn today. Sean laughed at me because of my irregular mowing style. I've never mowed a lawn before, so I just kind of zigged and zagged in circles. Apparently, people usually go in lines. (This is usually his job, but allergies and a cold had him practically snorkeling through the air, wheezing and ill.)

Afterward, Josie and I each got a broom and swept the back porch and sidewalk. She was quite diligent in her efforts. (Picture to come.)

Oh yes. We got a church bulletin from my mom with a photo on the front of Josie "waiting." She was enthralled with this, and said "pig." That is, she looked at the photo and recognized/remembered that it was taken while she was watching the guinea pig at the children's museum. Pretty good memory!

Hope it didn't get destroyed by the nail polish.